The bark HIOMA, 150th anniversary of sailing around Cape Horn.
Cap Horn is the southernmost tip of South America, a promontory of the Horn Island in the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago.
A fierce chop, fast currents, strong southwesterly storms and poor visibility made sailing around the 150-meter-high rock dangerous and slow.
The bark HIONMA became the first known Estonian ship to have sailed round Cape Horn from the Atlantic into the Pacific in February 1854. In the age of sailing ships, this was a very important feat and clearly showed that ships built in Estonia and the men sailing on them were capable of distant voyages.
The HIOMA was owned by G H E von Ungern-Sternberg and she was built at Suursadam on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa in 1848. The ship on a long-term charter to the Clayhill’s trade office was the first known Estonian ship that sailed round Cape Horn to Peru and returned with a cargo of fertilizer.
Copied from an Eesti Post info leaflet.